Nov. 03, 2003 - 20:31 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Not Again

Interesting dope in Charles Krauthammer's column in the Rocky Mountain News November 3rd. Racing The Car Bombers

In one place he says, "There is no general uprising among the Iraqui people. On the contrary: 80 per cent of the country is either Shiite or Kurd, for almost a century ruled and oppressed by the Sunni Arab minority. Which is why most polls show a very substantial majority of Iraqis want the Americans and British to stay and are pleased with the overthrow of Saddam."

A bit further he says, "The Iraqi resistance, such as it is, is rooted in the Sunni Baathists who have everything to lose if the Americans succeed. But it is precisely because they represent so small a minority that they are likely to fail, barring a collapse of American will at home."

Mr. Krauthammer says later, "The car bomb is the nuclear weapon of guerilla warfare."

Earlier Mr. Krauthammer brings up the car bombs, "The 1983 car bomb attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, and another car bomb in Beirut in in the early 1980's that was just as significant. In 1982, a car bomb blew up Phalange Party headquarters, killing Bashir Gemayel, the newly elected pro-Western, pro-American, pro-Israeli president. Syria was deeply unhappy with him. The car bomb soon took care of business, wiping out an entire office building housing not just Gemayel but many top aides and government officials. It was the perfect political decapitation. With Gemayel gone, and a year later the Americans too, Lebanon inexorably fell into Syria's lap. It remains a Syrian colony today."

He goes on to say, "Our enemies in Iraq have learned those lessons well. The car bomnb of Oct. 12 was aimed at the Baghdad Hotel, housing not just large numbers of Americans but much of the provisional Iraqi government. It would have been the equivalent of the two Beirut bombings in one: a psychological crushing massacre of Americans -- which would have sparked immediate debate at home about withdrawal -- and the instantaneous destruction of much of the pro-American government, a political decapitation that would have left very few Iraqis courageous enough to fill the vacuum."

Then Mr. Krauthammer makes a telling observation, "The bomber failed. Most significantly, it was the Iraqi police who assisted in shooting up the car at a relatively safe distance and thus preventing a catastrophe."

On further he says, "The car bomb campaign has, however, continued with singular ferocity since. The war in Iraq now consists of a race: the U.S. is racing to build up Iraqi police and armed forces capable of taking over the country's security -- before the Sadaam loyalists and their jihadist allies can produce that single Beirut-like car bomb that so discourages Americans (and Iraqis) that we withdraw in disarray. Who wins the race ? If this president remains in power, the likelihood is that we do." (will ?)

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Regardless of politics, polls and public opinion I think that withdrawal from Iraq is suicidal. We are in it and to my way of thinking are in it up to our ears. It is not just Iraq it appears to me but the people who are supplying arms and ammunition to the Baathists - which might be people, groups or countries from most anywhere in the Muslim world.

Maybe I am just an old grouch, but it seems to me that we gave the Russians eastern Europe at the end of World War two. We pulled out of Korea, we pulled out of Vietnam, we didn't finish the job in the Gulf War. I think maybe we better finish this one or learn Arabic.

Whether we should or should not be in Iraq is not the question -- that is for the historians to decide probably. We are there, we need to stay the course it looks like to me. Pull out on this one ? Oh no, no, Not Again . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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